Society is in a great turmoil over what rights should be granted to homosexuals. One segment of society feels it is wrong to deny these people full human rights, guaranteed under the constitution. Another segment of society feels that certain rights should be denied them because they are a threat to the moral wellbeing of society, especially to small children whom they can influence. California law makes it legal for consenting adults to perform homosexual acts in private. Acting in private is one thing, but to publicize this lifestyle as a respectable way of life is another thing. On the weekend of June 26, 1977 homosexuals paraded across the country in support of the rights of homosexuals to practice their lifestyle. The purpose of these parades and festivities was to convince society that homosexuality is something great, grand, and glorious, and it is a denial of human rights to deny any freedom to them whatsoever. What should be the attitude of Christians to this new development? Homosexuality is an emotional disorder in which one has an abnormal love for the same sex. It is a love which a man has for another man or child including sexual relations. Or it is a love which a woman has for another woman, including sexual relations. Female homosexuality is called lesbianism. It is a serious emotional derangement that verges on mental illness. Psychiatry has had little success in helping these people. It is a social affliction with which some people must forever struggle. A few try to make the best of their affliction by calling it normal or inherited, but this is just wishful thinking. The attempt to seduce others, especially the young, into homosexuality is sinful. The practice of homosexuality goes back to the early beginnings of human history. In all probability it was practiced before the flood of Noah and was one of the sinful deeds which brought on the flood. However, the fi±st mention of it in the Bible was about 2,000 B.C. It was widely practiced in Southern Palestine in the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. The Bible says that God overthrew these cities in his anger and his wrath(Deut. 29:23). This is the first indication of God's indignation at the practice. The story of how God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and the surrounding cities is recorded in Genesis 19. God sent two angels in human form to Sodom to warn Lot to get out, and the men of Sodom attempted to sexually attack the angels. A catastrophic explosion devastated that entire southern section of Palestine. The New Testament teaches that this supernatural destruction happened as an example to show God's utter abhorrence of homosexuality to the end of the world. 2 peter 2:6 says, “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.” Commenting on Sodom and Gomorrah the New Testament states in Jude 7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Fornication includes all forms of sexual immorality. The New Testament declares the sin of homosexuality is going after strange flesh. God created woman for man to live within the marriage relationship. For a man to have sexual relations with another man is to go after strange flesh. It turns the marriage institution upside down, and changes God's law. God made a woman's body to be used by a man and he made a man's body. A man's body to be used by a woman. God forbids a man to use another man̓s body for sexual uses, and forbids a woman to use a another woman's body for sexual uses. Furthermore, the New Testament states that homosexuality is contrary to nature. This means it is abnormal and unnatural. Homosexuality was introduced to the human race sometime between the flood and Abraham's time. It started long before the time of Sodom in 2,000 B.C. Romans 1:26,27 speaks of that early time when homosexuality had its beginning. It says, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature; (this was female homosexuality), and likewise men also, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Paul said homosexuality dishonors or disgraces the body (Romans 1:24). It is also called a vile affection which means a low, base desire. Furthermore, it is said to be against nature. This means it is contrary to nature as the Creator planned it. Again, the Bible describes it as unseemly, which means indecent and shameful. This was God's oral judgment on the lifestyle of homosexuality as practiced in Sodom and the surrounding cities. The dead sea may be a standing monument to the sin of homosexuality. Some believe that the catastrophic destruction of the plain of Sodom created the depression which now makes up the dead sea. We are told in the Bible that before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, the plain of Sodom was well watered every where and fertile like the garden of Eden. (Genesis 13:10) Probably the Jordan river flowed all the way to the Red Sea and overflowed its banks like the Nile, but after the explosion and eruption at Sodom, it is possible that the great chasm was formed in the earth that now makes up the dead sea. The Bible says of those ancient gay people, “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lordexceedingly” (Genesis 13:13). Sodom and Gomorrah now lay buried under the dead sea.

When God rejected the Gentile nations for idolatry, homosexuality and such like things, he chose Israel to be his chosen nation. He gave them specific laws forbidding homosexuality. One of the chief reasons God drove out the Canaanite nations and moved Israel in was they practiced homosexuality. For the same reason God commanded that they be exterminated instead of being captured. They were put to death to prevent the spread of sexual deviation among Israel. Leviticus 18:22-24 says, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Neither shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. It is perversion. Do not Defile yourselves with any of these things, for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out be fore you.” We learn that the Canaanite nations who lived in Palestine were given over to homosexuality. God did not take the land away from those people and give it to Israel without a cause. He did it to destroy a certain moral and religious lifestyle; it was divine justice. God could no longer tolerate little children being raised up in this demoralizing lifestyle. America would do well to take heed to the anger of God on this lifestyle. God gave this law to Israel in Leviticus 20:13, “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” This vice was so widely practiced, God had to make it a capital crime to stop it. The laws of our land have legalized this vice in private and now they want the right to come out of the closet and propagate it as a decent, acceptable way of life. Isaiah 3:9 describes what is going on America today, “The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to their soul. For they have brought evil upon themselves.” Sodom was not ashamed of homosexuality; they refused to keep it in the closet. They declared it as a good way to live, and so it is today. God legislated again against homosexuality in Deuteronomy 23:17, “There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a sodomite one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.” The female in this passage referred to a female who practiced prostitution in religious rituals, and the male in the passage referred to man who practiced male sex in religious rituals. The homosexual man in the passage is called a dog, probably from the sexual habits of dogs. They call themselves Gays today but the Bible calls them Sodomites after the practice in Sodom. God also forbad them to bring the “price of a dog” in His house. A dog was a figure of speech applied to male prostitutes and means the same as sodomite n the preceding verse. A dog in the animal world is known for his homosexual tendencies, and therefore is applied to homosexuals as a term of contempt. The New Testament also refers to homosexuals as dogs. In Revelation 22:14,15 God says that all who do the commandments of Christ shall enter into the heavenly city. He then added, “For outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and sexually immoral and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and practices a lie.” I Cor. 6:9 states in the New King James Version, “Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

In view of the teachings of God's word, what should be our attitude toward homosexuality? We should love homosexuals as persons, as creatures made in the image of God, but we should hate homosexuality. God is willing to accept homosexuals they will turn away from this lifestyle and become Christians. We should oppose homosexuality as a lifestyle because it defiles society, the institution of marriage, and angers Almighty God. It is sinful to make prostitutes out of 8 year old boys. Homosexual are charging society with denying them human rights because they are banned from such positions as teachers of our children, and adopting children. Freedom does not mean we have a right to do as we please. Pickpockets, thieves, prostitutes, and producers of pornography could make the same claim. Pornographers want to take nude pictures of 10 and 12 year old boys and girls. They plead their constitutional rights. Good laws must be enacted to protect society from criminals, moral deviates, and those who would corrupt society. Any lifestyle that endangers the marriage institution and the morals of innocent children cannot excuse their conduct by pleading for their human rights. The very least any society can do is to see to it that this lifestyle is kept in the closet, hidden from view and under no circumstances permit it to be propagated as a lifestyle. In San Francisco, a course is taught in school on homosexuality.